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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26589088">Shorebreak</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohofcourse/pseuds/ohofcourse'>ohofcourse</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Hunter X Hunter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Surfers, Blindfolds, Breathplay, Explicit Sexual Content, Handcuffs, Happy Ending, Hisoka is a professional surfer, Illumi is an ocean photographer, Light BDSM, Light Dom/sub, M/M, Safeword Use, Sharks</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-04-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 13:14:41</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>12,824</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26589088</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohofcourse/pseuds/ohofcourse</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Hisoka is a professional surfer in town for a few weeks for an upcoming competition. Illumi is an ocean photographer and free diver who has spent every waking moment in search of a sixteen-foot great white. They meet in the sea.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hisoka/Illumi Zoldyck</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>34</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>313</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This story is pretty much written, I was just too lazy to edit the latter half, so it is coming in two parts! </p><p>I purposely left the geographical location of this beach vague because I didn't want to be held to a specific biome for all the mentioned marine life, but literally who cares? </p><p>Please enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Usually, the beach was sparsely occupied. It gave Illumi a chance to properly zip up his wetsuit and check over his camera. More specifically, the underwater housing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The last time he had gone in the water without checking it, the two-thousand-dollar casing had ruined a three-thousand-dollar camera. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It had been fiercely unpleasant scampering back to his father, tail between his legs, requesting new equipment. Silva had just slapped his credit card down and stared his eldest son down with an odd assessing look, like he still couldn’t quite believe his former pride and joy had become an underwater photographer. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>And a very good freediver. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Usually, the beach was empty, save for a man who liked to walk a big, gray shaggy dog along the shore, kicking a dirty tennis ball across the wet sand absently. The dog was polite. It never bothered Illumi, but it watched him wade into the water and disappear into the waves like it was seeing a lover go. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sometimes, well-meaning passersby alerted the lifeguard on duty. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>There was a man out there in a wetsuit and no snorkeling gear and he hasn’t surfaced in five minutes. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>The first few times, the poor lifeguard, a bored-looking blonde kid with sleepy blue eyes, swam fifty yards offshore, only to be viciously chewed-out by an irritated Illumi. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You scared the fish away.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That woman thought you drowned,” he said stupidly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I didn’t,” Illumi hissed, gesturing to himself. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>After that, the lifeguard stopped going after him. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Don’t worry, ma’am. He’s a freediver. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>That seemed to put people at ease, and with a little </span>
  <em>
    <span>oh </span>
  </em>
  <span>of realization, they would usually waddle off, wrapping scratchy knit shawls around their freckled, sunburned shoulders. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Even when the beach was crowded--during hot Saturdays--Illumi could find peace in the simple act of submerging his head. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sometimes he forwent his camera, just to swim. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Usually, however, he brought it with him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It started with observing the coral: </span>
  <em>
    <span>acropora hyacinthus </span>
  </em>
  <span>and </span>
  <em>
    <span>pocillopora</span>
  </em>
  <span> and </span>
  <em>
    <span>pavona</span>
  </em>
  <span>. When Illumi tired himself out of that, he moved onto fish, more specifically, sharks. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He followed around the puppy-like black tips which loitered in the shallow reefs and then ventured further out, watching adolescent great whites dart after silver-bellied fish. </span>
</p><p>
  <span> Sometimes, Illumi just took pictures of the water. He liked the way the sun filtered in through a well-formed barrel. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Coincidentally, or maybe not so, this perfect barrel he so much liked to photograph had become a playground to surfers in the area. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Like harbor seals, they frolicked amongst the waves, laughing loudly, slapping their palms against their boards. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>They were scaring the fish away. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>On a Monday morning, early enough that even the man and his gray dog weren’t out yet, a trio of surfers stood at the shore, surveying the surf. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Going by the short, sharp shapes of their boards, they were bound to be decent. Two were tall: one tan, the other surprisingly pale. The third was shorter, with blonde hair he kept tied in a ponytail. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The tall pale one had bleached hair that bore remnants of pink. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi watched them warily. They didn’t seem like the loud types, but then, they were surfers. The water would probably turn them into children. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The current tugged him closer to shore, forcing him to focus again. With a little sigh, Illumi dived back down and forgot the surfers on the beach, melting like a pad of butter into the cool, relentless sea. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi’s therapist said there were many reasons why his obsession with the sea could have manifested. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi figured he just liked feeling weightless. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The ocean didn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>want </span>
  </em>
  <span>you going down. It tried to force you to its surface, to keep its secrets locked tight under a glittering blue skin, like unset-gelatin. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Seal?” Someone shouted, interrupting Illumi’s train of thought. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just a diver,” another voice called. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Surfers. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi popped back up from the water. Without realizing it, they had gotten very close to them. The pale one with pinkish hair was grinning at Illumi from a few yards away. He was straddling his board casually, chin tilted up in a way that reminded Illumi of an overly-confident dog. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Whatcha diving for?” He asked. His shoulders were impossibly broad, waist slender. Even in a spring suit, which cut off mid-bicep and mid-thigh, his overall build was impressive. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He paddled at the water patiently. A wave rolled under the both of them. His tan companion paddled for it furiously and then abruptly stopped when he realized the quality of the wave was poor. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m not diving for anything,” Illumi said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Really?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why--”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’ve got a camera.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ve been trailing a great white.” The surfer’s eyebrows raised and he glanced around at the choppy water. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You sure he isn’t trailing us?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She. And no. She’s large. We would see her.” That last part was a lie, but Illumi didn’t have the patience to comfort a frightened surfer.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How big are we talking?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“About sixteen feet. She’s mature. She likes to hang just off the coast.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There’s gonna be a competition here, you know, in two weeks' time.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes,” Illumi said, lip curling, “I know.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The surf competition happened annually. It was part of the Championship Tour, a way for professionals to improve their standings in the CT rankings. To rank first in the CT at the end of the season meant you were the best-ranked surfer in the world. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The beach was transformed for this event. Huge scaffolding was put up to house a judges’ tent, bleachers for spectators, and a dozen or so vendors, selling wetsuits and acai bowls and sunscreen. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It drew huge crowds. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Unsurprisingly, it was the bane of Illumi’s existence. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m going to be surfing in it,” the surfer added, raising an eyebrow. “My name’s Hisoka.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hm, well, then I’ll see you, I suppose.” Illumi turned, preparing to make his exit. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You think the shark will be back?” Hisoka asked. His eyes glinted. Illumi shrugged, water hiccuping around him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She comes and she goes. Her final destination is Baja California, to give birth. But she likes this area. She’s big enough to go after dolphins and young elephant seals, so there’s plenty for her to eat.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The surfer, Hisoka, was mystified by this diver, who bobbed in the water like a piece of flotsam. His face was peculiar, well-structured but odd, with the kind of eyes that, in fact, reminded him of a shark, big and broad and black. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’s your name?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Illumi.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You take photos?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you any good?” Hisoka teased. That seemed to ruffle some feathers. Illumi’s lip lifted. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, you’re a good little diver. You were under the water for a while.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thank you,” Illumi said warily. Hisoka lifted his chin, gaze drifting to a spot in the water beyond Illumi. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Set’s coming,” he said absently. “See you at the competition, little diver.” Hisoka winked and then leaned forward onto his stomach and paddled hard, catching the wave that came up behind them with seeming ease. He was up on his feet in an instant, crouched low. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi watched Hisoka cut back and forth over the face of the wave, carving deep white gouges in the water. He was smiling devilishly, his slicked back hair falling in front of his eyes. Every muscle in his body was engaged, Illumi could tell, even through the wetsuit. When the wave fizzled out, Hisoka popped out the back and started paddling back, laughing as his friend cheered obnoxiously. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi shook his head, fixed his diving mask back on his face, and dived back down, letting the dark seawater ease the burning of his cheeks. </span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>The next morning, Hisoka was back in the water. Illumi had spent all of the day before searching for his shark, until the sun began to dip in the sky and the visibility was so low that it even set Illumi’s mechanical heart racing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The ocean didn’t typically scare him, but that didn’t mean he was a fool. A black wetsuit and low water visibility was a bad combination when trying to swim with sharks. He made his way back to shore, exhausted and dismayed by the late hour. When he crawled back home, he barely had the energy to shower, collapsing on his bed in his towel and falling sleep instantly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>This was why, the next morning, when Illumi finally made it back to the beach, Hisoka was already in the water. It was warmer today, warm enough that Hisoka had forgone a wetsuit in favor of a thin long-sleeved rashguard and board shorts. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Illumi!” He called, waving. Illumi waved back hesitantly. </span>
</p><p>--</p><p>
  <span>The little diver wasn’t actually so little, Hisoka realized with a jolt of delight. Even in a sweatshirt and trunks, it was clear that he was leanly muscled, built more like a professional swimmer than a photographer. He had long hair which was half-heartedly put up in a knot. His wetsuit was thrown over his shoulder but Hisoka rather hoped he didn’t bother with it today. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>A wave, a sizable one, rolled under him. He could have paddled for it if he had been paying attention. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Oops. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi grabbed the hem of his sweatshirt and shed it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Another wave rolled by, water surging up to his waist. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi’s torso was very pale and lithe. He didn’t look like the kind of person who went to the beach very often, more like a creature that had crawled up from the depths of the ocean on a moonless night. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He seemed to be debating the wetsuit, much to Hisoka’s delight. He chewed his lip and set it down in the sand, folding his sweatshirt neatly and placing it on top. There was something about his movements--prim and efficient, like he had been programmed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hisoka watched as Illumi re-tied the drawstring of his shorts and then threw his camera strap over his shoulder. He waded into the water without hesitation, letting a wave batter his chest as it came. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>His diving mask hung about his neck like a collar. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey!” Hisoka shouted, waving his arm again. Illumi’s eyebrows, both of them, shot up. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’ve already said hello,” he said. Hisoka snorted and paddled closer. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi pulled his mask up so that it rested on top of his head. It pulled a bit at the skin of his forehead, making his eyebrows raise involuntarily, lending him the expression of someone gently surprised. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m saying it again. You’re back in the water!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m always in the water,” Illumi said simply. His pale chest glowed white under the water. It was inconceivable that he was so pale. Even Hisoka, who was naturally porcelain-skinned, had gotten a golden cast since the start of summer. Mostly, he freckled. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Still looking for your shark?” Hisoka asked with a grin. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I found three yesterday,” Illumi said with a disappointed sigh, not noticing the way that Hisoka’s smile faltered or the way the color drained from his face. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Smaller, ten and twelve-footers.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Bummer,” Hisoka squeaked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Dolphin pods have been moving in and out of this area, so the smaller sharks have left. Which is good for me.” Illumi scanned the horizon absently. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you live near here?” Hisoka asked, eager to distract himself. Illumi eyed him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why?” He asked suspiciously. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So I can break into your house and rob it, Illumi.” Illumi’s expression soured. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I live there,” and he pointed to a small but unbelievably expensive-looking house right on the cliff overlooking the beach. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So you’re rich,” Hisoka said, eyeing the property dazedly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My parents are,” Illumi said with a sigh, as if he was tortured by it. Now that Hisoka was really thinking about it, Illumi did seem like a rich kid. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Your parents are very rich,” Hisoka surmised. Even from here, he could see a rolling green lawn--far too much lawn for a house on some of the most expensive real estate in the county--and the edge of what must have been an infinity pool. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Where do you live?” Illumi asked, fitting his mask over his face. It made him look, if it was possible, even more bug-like. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not here,” Hisoka said with a grin. “I just got here early to practice before the competition. I’m staying--” Illumi had gone underwater, zero warning. It was so sudden that Hisoka suddenly felt his blood run cold. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Maybe, that lady-shark he had been looking for had found him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi blessedly resurfaced a moment later. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It was just a blacktip, sorry,” he said. His hair was plastered to his forehead and neck, beads of water rolling down his throat suggestively. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A blacktip shark?” Hisoka asked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Two.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You know, I was surfing at a spot in Tahiti--it was right after Teahupoo, where I placed second, by the way. Did you know five surfers have died there since 2000? Anyway, I was surfing at a spot just off one of the smaller islands and--” Illumi was gone again. All Hisoka saw of him was the edge of a flipper and then he had disappeared, deep enough that the blue cast of the water had swallowed him up. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hisoka blinked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>When Illumi resurfaced, it was nearly five minutes later, and he was about fifty feet further out. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hisoka watched his dark head bob in the water for a few moments before dipping back down. With a shake of his own head, he turned his board, trying not to think of the invisible blacktip sharks swimming down below. </span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>When Hisoka finally waded out of the water, he laid his board down and then sat in the sand with his elbows on his knees, waiting. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi took his time in the water, resurfacing every now and then like a seal. There was something very natural about the way he behaved in water, so at odds with everything else about him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Maybe he really had come from the ocean, like those stories of selkies, half-maiden, half-seal, shedding her glittering pelt to bask, naked, under the moon. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi would look very good naked, especially under the moon. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>By the time Illumi was done, the sun was starting to hang dangerously low in the sky and Hisoka’s shoulders were red. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ve been waiting for you,” Hisoka said, leaning back on his hands to grin up at Illumi, who stood there, dripping water, hair as black and slick as an oil spill. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why?” He sounded wary. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I want to go to your house.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why?” Illumi asked again. His skin was covered in goosebumps. Water dripped down his navel, eventually following a trail of dark hair that disappeared under his shorts. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The hair surprised Hisoka. He had imagined that, in line with Illumi’s general theme, he was as hairless as a dolphin. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He found he didn’t mind the surprise at all. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I thought we could hang out, maybe have sex.” Hisoka finally maintained eye-contact with Illumi through his ridiculous diving mask. Illumi looked tempted to shy away, but he held Hisoka’s gaze, cheeks burning blatantly red against otherwise icy skin. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay,” Illumi said eventually, shouldering his camera and then pressing it to his side, as if seeking comfort from it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay,” Hisoka said, smiling.</span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Illumi’s house was accessible from the beach via a rickety wooden staircase that zig-zagged up the face of the cliffside. An old sign at the bottom of the stairs declared they were entering private property. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you have shoes?” Illumi asked, shoving his feet into a pair of black leather Birkenstocks. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No,” Hisoka said with a snort. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You might get splinters,” Illumi warned. Hisoka shrugged and followed Illumi up the stairs, watching the flex of his calves, the way his shoulders shifted with each step. Illumi checked back on him periodically. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How are your feet?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re very worried about these hypothetical splinters,” Hisoka said, raising an eyebrow. Illumi’s face wrinkled. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Whatever.” The remaining flight of stairs was traveled in silence. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The lawn Hisoka had seen from the ocean was even more magnificent up close: short, soft green grass, as perfect as a soccer pitch, covered the backyard. What Hisoka had assumed to be a pool was actually a hot tub, with a ledge on it that had two empty cocktail glasses on it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>A pair of standup paddleboards leaned against the side of the house, their paddles propped against each other like lovers. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The house itself was modest in size, just one story, cape-cod style, with light gray wooden shingles and massive glass windows with white trim. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nice house,” Hisoka said. Illumi bent down near a planter bursting with white roses and plucked a weed from the soil, tossing it over the edge of the cliff. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s my parents’.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You know, it’s much sexier if you just say ‘thank you’.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sorry,” Illumi said flatly, taking Hisoka around the side of the house to where an outdoor shower was hidden. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Two of Illumi’s bathing suits from prior days were hanging there, still damp. It was unintentionally erotic. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We have to rinse off before we go in.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay,” Hisoka said agreeably. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I hate sand,” Illumi said darkly, eyeing the stuff that coated the back of Hisoka’s thighs. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You live on the beach,” Hisoka said, “and you’re an ocean photographer.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes,” Illumi said with a sigh. </span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Rinsing off was one long peep show for Hisoka. At one point, he took the detachable shower head and attempted to shove it down Illumi’s shorts, but he was stopped by a surprisingly strong hand. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hisoka,” Illumi said, sounding affronted. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sorry,” Hisoka said without sincerity. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m going inside.” Illumi squeezed the water out of his hair and slipped into the house through the side door, leaving wet footprints on the hardwood floors. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The inside of the house was updated, with clearly custom hardware and lighting. Hisoka grabbed a towel from the linen closet that was slightly ajar and sat himself down at the massive kitchen island which dominated the little house’s open floor plan. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, this is my house,” Illumi said, pouring himself a glass of something green. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Cool, cool,” Hisoka said, looking around. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re very neat,” he added, taking in the white linen sectional and the carved wooden coffee table, layered with photography books featuring mediterranean coastlines.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m not,” Illumi said, taking a sip of his green drink. “I have a cleaning lady.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wanna have sex?” Hisoka asked, watching the bob of Illumi’s throat as he swallowed. Illumi glanced sideways at him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, sure,” he said with a shrug. Illumi set his glass down and adjusted the towel wrapped around his waist. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“One second,” he added, holding up a finger. Without an ounce of modesty, he reached under his towel and slid off his trunks, holding them carefully to prevent them from dripping on the floors. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He disappeared outside through the side door and then returned a moment later. Hisoka mentally pictured a third bathing suit joining the other two hanging on the outdoor shower handle.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay, ready,” Illumi said, stretching both arms overhead, belly extending in a graceful arc. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay,” Hisoka said, following him down the hallway into what was clearly a master bedroom. Camera equipment and a big Mac desktop sat on a desk. The sleep display on the Mac was a slideshow of family photos, from what Hisoka could tell: a young Illumi, still just as somber-looking, but with short hair and a white-haired, blue-eyed boy on his lap. There were more, one of him with a massive, proud-looking dog, the kind of dog that threw itself at men in full-body protection suits, who stood between your legs and barked until someone pissed themselves. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>In the photo, the dog was attempting to lick Illumi’s face, and Illumi was smiling a rare smile, straight white teeth flashing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Another photo came on, a very formal family portrait. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi looked like his mother. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>By the looks of it, he was the eldest, too, standing tall even as a teenager, his father’s massive hand on his shoulder. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s my family,” Illumi said unnecessarily.   </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes,” Hisoka agreed. “Are you close?” Illumi’s mouth quirked in a surprising expression of bitterness. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“By necessity.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What do your parents do?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Some things here and there,” Illumi said with a shrug. Hisoka laughed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So vague! What, are they--like--child traffickers, or something?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not traffickers, no,” Illumi said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hisoka brought himself to Illumi’s front. Their rinse in the shower hadn’t done much beyond getting the sand off their skin and hair. They both smelled of salt. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>And when Hisoka leaned in to kiss Illumi, gentle and chaste, he found that they both tasted like it, too. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi was not a gentle kisser. He met Hisoka’s mouth without surprise or hesitance, like he had been planning to all along. It was gratifying for Hisoka, to know that at least physically, the enthusiasm was mutual. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hisoka’s arm snaked around Illumi’s back and dug into his hair--that hair. Even after hours in the ocean, it was still lightly fragrant: almond and vanilla and something else, something a little darker and more masculine, something that had to be Illumi’s natural scent, or maybe his needlessly sexy detergent. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wanna give me head?” Illumi asked, licking a short stripe up Hisoka’s upper lip. Hisoka bit back a laugh, trying, and failing, to reconcile this Illumi with the one splashing around in the ocean in those ridiculous goggles. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes,” Hisoka said honestly, pulling away at Illumi’s towel until it came off and dropped to the floor in a damp heap. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi felt hot and heavy in his hand, substantial and already very slick. There was almost no friction as Hisoka slid his hand up and down leisurely, mouth still working at Illumi’s. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi was a good kisser, or maybe, a compatible kisser. Hisoka had never kissed someone for so long and enjoyed it. Usually, there came a point when his mouth was sore and overly wet and he wanted to breathe and pull away and wipe his mouth and run his tongue over his teeth. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was none of that. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He could have kissed Illumi until the sea rose up to the cliff and carried Illumi’s little house away, hot tub and all. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you going to watch me surf in two weeks?” Hisoka asked as Illumi laid back on the bed, propped up on his elbows. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>A single, perfect eyebrow arched. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you want me to?” He let out a hiss as Hisoka’s hand tightened. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You could wear a t-shirt with my face on it, and carry a sign, and wait in the VIP section with the rest of the girlfriends.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I hope you lose,” Illumi said flatly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’ll still be here, then? Looking for your shark?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I thought I was getting head.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hisoka licked a petulant stripe up Illumi’s cock, watching in satisfaction as Illumi twitched in surprise and then sighed, sinking back into the mattress. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And maybe not,” Illumi said, voice careful and light, trying to keep his tone under control. “I have drones and a friend of mine, a pilot--</span>
  <em>
    <span>hah</span>
  </em>
  <span>--” Hisoka had scraped his bottom teeth against the underside of Illumi’s cock. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They search for her when the visibility is high. If we don’t find her, I’ll go south towards Baja.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I hope you find her here, then,” Hisoka said before going down, nearly to the base. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think she’s just too far offshore…” Illumi hissed. “One of my friends follows the Southern pod, a pod of killer whales in Monterey. She told me they’re moving south. My shark might be staying deeper to avoid themstopimgonnacome--” Illumi’s thigh jerked as Hisoka pulled away with a sharp grin. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hisoka’s already full lips were pink and bitten, glossy with spit and precum. His already hooded eyes were darker than usual. His already messy hair was just a little wilder.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay,” Illumi said after a moment, his breathing slowing back down to a steady rate. “Off you go,” gesturing vaguely to his groin. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re very demanding, you know,” Hisoka said, rubbing his thumb against Illumi’s hipbone. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re the one who asked to have sex,” Illumi said indignantly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, yes,” Hisoka said, hand traveling every so slightly down to press against Illumi’s perineum. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh,” Illumi said with a gentle sigh. “That feels good.” Hisoka went back down, forcing his throat to relax and swallowing Illumi all in one go. He felt a hand at the back of his head, not pushing, but holding. If Hisoka really wanted to pull up, he probably could, but it’s presence made him want to stay down, even as saliva dripped from his mouth, sliding down his chin and painting the skin around his lips wet. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Did you think I’d be a pushover?” Illumi asked hoarsely. His voice wavered slightly at the ends. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hisoka felt the hand lift and he immediately pulled off, gasping slightly. He wiped his chin with the back of his arm and smiled, showing teeth. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I thought you’d be more…” Hisoka gestured ineffectually, withering slightly under Illumi’s piercing gaze. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“More… what?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I dunno,” Hisoka said, grinning sloppily now. “More floppy and whiny and pornographic.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“...Pornographic?” Illumi asked slowly, his cock twitching. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You know,” Hisoka said, “like, </span>
  <em>
    <span>daddy, please</span>
  </em>
  <span>! Like that.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Daddy, please,” Illumi echoed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, you have to sound more damaged,” Hisoka said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why don’t you say it?” Illumi demanded, brows knitting together. For the first time since they had come to the bedroom, Hisoka got a good look at his face. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>His cheeks were red and soft, like he had just woken up from a nap, and his hair was mussed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can’t say it,” Hisoka said. “I don’t have daddy issues.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How do you know I do?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You can just tell,” Hisoka said with a shrug. Illumi sighed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can you just keep going?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sure.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi flopped back down on the mattress and glanced down at Hisoka. Even from this angle, Illumi looked very handsome, hair gleaming under the waning light like abalone. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hisoka circled his thumb over the head of Illumi’s cock, patient and gleeful. Illumi watched, looking very skeptical. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you going to do something?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I was, right until you asked me that.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay, sorry.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hisoka swallowed him back down, a laugh vibrating his throat and making Illumi claw at the bedsheets. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He swirled his tongue absently, skating his right hand up Illumi’s stomach to rest over his chest. He thumbed at Illumi’s nipple, delighted to find that Illumi was responsive there. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>By the time he found a good rhythm with his mouth, Illumi was almost gone. He bucked up once and grabbed Hisoka by the back of the skull, holding him in place as he came. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hisoka swallowed and wiped his lip with his thumb primly, staring down at a gasping Illumi with a proud sort of smile. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good,” Illumi agreed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do me, do me,” Hisoka said, kissing Illumi open-mouthed. Illumi spluttered in disgust at tasting himself in Hisoka’s mouth, but he didn’t do much in the way of pulling away. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How?” Illumi asked. Hisoka maneuvered Illumi on top of him, sitting him directly on his erection. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Like this,” Hisoka said, reaching up to kiss Illumi again. He felt Illumi’s hips roll, grinding down against him. He was already close, having kept a hand on himself when he had gone down on Illumi. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He was generous in bed, preferring to be the giver over the receiver. It seemed he and Illumi were compatible that way. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Now, he just wanted to come. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>At one point, Illumi shifted, situating his thigh between Hisoka’s legs instead and pressing gently. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hisoka moaned. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi went for his neck, kissing and biting and hissing when his half-hard cocked brushed Hisoka’s stomach. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m gonna--” Hisoka came with a sigh, feeling Illumi smile into his mouth. “Come,” he added belatedly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi scoffed, pulling back to sit on his heels, his cock laying against his thigh, attempting to make a reappearance. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That was fun,” Hisoka said dazedly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I want to do it again,” Illumi agreed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well,” Hisoka said with a sleepy stretch, “I know where you live.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you actually have a t-shirt?” Illumi asked. Hisoka cocked his head, confused.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“With your face on it,” Illumi added. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh,” Hisoka said, face cracking into a smile. “I can make you one.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I wasn’t asking for one,” Illumi sniffed. “Just curious.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okayyy,” Hisoka said, stumbling to the bathroom. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You have a nice fucking bathroom!” He shouted, voice echoing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There’s a sauna on the other side of the house,” Illumi responded, not shouting. Hisoka peered into the bedroom, eyes wide. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, let’s have sex there next.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright,” Illumi said. Hisoka showered properly this time, using Illumi’s expensive shampoo and conditioner, and his expensive body wash. Illumi watched, a hand propped up on the doorway.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Pervert,” Hisoka said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Did you want to stay for dinner?” Illumi asked. His thumb tapped anxiously at the door jam. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you cooking?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Absolutely not. I thought I’d order sushi.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay, though I might have to borrow some clothes.” </span>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Hisoka had been expecting, perhaps, another round of sex. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>What he got was Illumi handing him pajama shorts and a tye-dyed t-shirt that said “Thyme to Turnip the Beat,” featuring the aforementioned vegetables in cartoon form. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi sat him down on the couch, set down an obscene amount of expensive sushi, and then made him sit through an hour-long slideshow of his photography, with most of them being coral. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hisoka didn’t mind coral photos when they were hanging in the reception lobby of a dentist’s office. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He did mind them when they were fading in and out to classical music, when Illumi was pointing out each one, pausing the slideshow even, to explain the variety. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was sort of cute, in that exasperating way that Hisoka was beginning to find familiar with Illumi. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>When the raw fish was gone, and the slideshow was blessedly over, they did, in fact, have sex again, and when Illumi was brought nearly to orgasm but staved off, Hisoka asked him to recite the coral names he had shown him in alphabetical order, just to hear the tremble in his voice.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>as you may have noticed, i have added a third chapter. hehe</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>When Illumi woke the next morning, there was a text on his phone: </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Hisoka: see u in the sea ;)</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Hisoka was indeed in the sea, paddling for a well-sized wave with a fierce look of concentration. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He caught it, jumping up on the board with ease, and carved long, languid curves in the open face of the wave. When it started to close at the back end, he crouched down low, letting the barrel consume him and then spit him out as the wave crumbled to white water. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi slipped into his wetsuit, heart fluttering like the gills of a fish, and swam out to meet him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hisoka smelled of sweet sunscreen, and his mouth was purple. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Acai,” he explained, opening his mouth as if he were at the dentist. Without thinking, Illumi licked at his open mouth like a dog. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s good.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It took Hisoka a few minutes to recover from his surprise. When he did, he smiled. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We can get some later today then.” </span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Illumi was beginning to think his magnificent shark had gotten her liver ripped out by orcas, or had maybe skipped this area altogether, in favor of the warm, fertile waters of Baja California.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There were sharks here, some of them big enough to turn Illumi’s head, but none were quite as large or quite as memorable. His shark was as wide as a futon and had a scar across her gills, and she could throw herself out of the water so high it was like she was a missile. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi had seen it, six years ago, his second sighting of her. He had been eighteen at the time, skinny and wary like an alleycat, hanging off the edge of his father’s borrowed open-sea yacht. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She had clobbered a seal out of the water, which, even at the time, had been a modest meal for her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Over the years, Illumi followed her around the world. She was old, in her fifties, and had developed a highly-predictable migration pattern. Which was why her scarceness was making Illumi nervous. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He swam out further than usual, until the water was dark and blue and endless beneath him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>When he had first swum with her, he was wary, carrying with him that very natural, very safe fear of the sea and everything it held. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It only took a few minutes of diving, just a foot or two shy of her massive white belly to lose all of that fear. There was nothing in the ocean that could get to him through a shark like this, nothing with more presence than her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shadows in the water stopped bothering him. The sharp edge of a fin stopped sending his heart racing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He wasn’t stupid. He wouldn’t dump chum in the water and float amongst it with a camera. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But, he wasn’t afraid anymore. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He swam until he heard Hisoka’s voice calling him back, faint over the sizable distance between them. He glanced back and realized with a jolt that he had drifted so far that the shore was nearly just a stripe of beige. He must have been a thousand feet offshore, at least. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hisoka waved frantically and Illumi felt his heart shudder with fondness. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He swam in backstroke, languid, letting the water cut against his shoulder, swell at his belly. His shark was here, he knew it. She would show herself in time. He would set up drones this afternoon, to see if an aerial view would deliver her to him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It took a while to swim back at the pace he was going. Hisoka had paddled out half-way to meet him, expression wide and nervous. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You swam out far,” he said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m back,” Illumi said, treading the water calmly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah,” Hisoka said, eyeing him warily. “Let’s get some acai bowls and lay out. You need a tan.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi followed Hisoka obediently, keeping his eye on the water below them. Hisoka was vulnerable on a board, looking too much like a seal. Sharks were usually smarter than that; they knew which beaches had seals, which ones had people, but juveniles made stupid mistakes, and even a small shark could kill. All they needed was a good bite, and you’d bleed out before you made it to shore. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>As such, Illumi swam facedown the whole way, though in truth, he wasn’t sure </span>
  <em>
    <span>what </span>
  </em>
  <span>he would do if he saw a shark coming. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was silly to linger on it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m famished,” Hisoka said, wading out of the water with a sigh. He crossed the sand to set his board against Illumi’s staircase. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The acai bowls are there.” Hisoka pointed to a purple shack a hundred feet down the beach with a small cluster of people around it. He threw a towel over his shoulders, watching as Illumi stripped his wetsuit and did the same. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>They ate sweet cold bowls of acai, layered with granola and coconut and strawberry, and buried their toes in the sand, watching the ocean coil and spit and pound. Hisoka would whisper to himself, every now and then, </span>
  <em>
    <span>oh that’s a good one</span>
  </em>
  <span>, as a wave swept in and Illumi studied the horizon with a quiet desperation, as if hoping to see the stark gray dorsal fin of his shark. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The sun set too early, as it always did on sunny days at the beach: the daylight first felt endless, and then it felt elusive, disappearing behind a flat blue belt of water with a cheeky wink of orange. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll see you tomorrow then,” Hisoka said, stretching his arms overhead. Illumi licked the spoon from his long-finished acai bowl. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The sun had done him some good. His cheeks were flushed pink and his shoulders were almost gold. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“See you tomorrow,” Illumi murmured back, eyes never leaving the ocean. Hisoka toed Illumi’s thigh. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, you should go home. Moping on the beach won’t do anything.” Illumi glared. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m not moping.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s a shark, Illumi. Your parents are, like, billionaires. Go buy a Lamborghini and do something fun with your life.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s not just a shark,” Illumi said darkly. Hisoka sighed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fine. Just go inside. You’re sunburned and tired. The best part about the beach is taking a long shower when you get home.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>That seemed to win Illumi over. With a long-suffering sigh, he stood, stretched just like Hisoka did, and slung his camera over his shoulder. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“See you tomorrow,” Illumi said. Hisoka pecked him on the cheekbone, right next to his eye. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sure.” </span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>The bleachers and vendor tents for the upcoming competition were already up. They dominated the beach in a big, ugly silver scar. Illumi watched it from his lawn, lip curled in disgust. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>When he finally made it to the beach, it was nearly noon. He hadn’t bothered to bring his camera. A small part of him thought, dryly, that today would be the day he actually spotted the shark. Murphy’s law. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Illumi!” Hisoka’s voice carried very far distances, he was learning. The surfer was surrounded by other surfers, all of them holding expensive boards, wearing expensive wetsuits. Other professionals then. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>They were tan and muscled and their hair was bleached blonde from the salt and the sun. Illumi balked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This is Illumi Zoldyck, he’s a freediver and photographer.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi was greeted with a chorus of </span>
  <em>
    <span>cool </span>
  </em>
  <span>and </span>
  <em>
    <span>what’s up </span>
  </em>
  <span>and </span>
  <em>
    <span>psyched to meet you</span>
  </em>
  <span>. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No camera today?” Hisoka asked, unable to resist teasing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m just going to swim,” he said with a shrug. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“See you in the water, then.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hisoka and his group of surfers took to the water. Apparently, they had already surfed this morning, but the weather was fantastically warm and the swell hadn’t died down yet. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi pulled up his long-sleeved spring suit, which had been rolled down to his hips for convenience. He could see Hisoka from the beach, and he could tell that Hisoka was watching him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi zipped up his suit, tied his hair back, and fitted his diving mask to his face. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>A particularly impressive wave swelled, crested, and slammed onto the beach in a vicious display of shorebreak. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>As he paddled out past the whitewater, he heard Hisoka’s voice coming in faintly over the sound of the waves. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“...really good photographer. I’ve seen his stuff. And his diving is insane. He goes under for five minutes at a time with no prep. He’s looking for this…” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The shoulder of a wave nearly took Illumi with it. He shook his head and swam onward, careful to avoid the surfers, in fear of getting in the way. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Illumi!” Hisoka shouted, waving him over. The other surfers straddled their board, chatting lazily with each other. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hello,” Illumi said, treading water. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There’s a lot of chop right now, so we’re waiting for the wind to die down.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It won’t,” Illumi said, floating on his back absently. One of the other surfers perked at his answer. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Seriously? How do you know?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He lives here,” Hisoka explained. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Aw, cool, man. Whereabouts?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi pointed to his house, sitting on the lip of the cliffside very politely. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shit, you’re rich then?” Illumi remembered what Hisoka said, about just saying </span>
  <em>
    <span>thank you </span>
  </em>
  <span>to these kinds of things. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sort of,” was his response. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You surf?” Another one asked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hiso says you’re a good waterman. You should learn.” Illumi assumed “Hiso” was a nickname for Hisoka. He sort of liked it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hiso’s a good teacher, too. He taught my two boys on the North Shore,” a third surfer added, slapping the water with both hands, like a child. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Illumi’s too busy looking for his shark,” Hisoka said fondly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If you find that thing, let us know, would you? We’ll fucking hop out the water.” They all laughed. Hisoka suddenly stiffened, eyes on the horizon. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Set’s coming. See you, Illu.” He turned on his board and paddled leisurely for a few seconds. Two of his companions did the same. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>They caught the wave in succession, with Hisoka jumping up last. He was the only one Illumi watched, carving up the face of the wave with breathtaking power, before cutting at the lip of the wave, fins flashing. One of the surfers who had remained in the back hollered in support. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi was inexplicably charmed, charmed by the sport and the people who loved it. Without looking to see how the wave ended, Illumi adjusted his mask and dove downwards, heading towards the densest part of the reef. </span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>The wave Hisoka had caught turned out to be a bit of a fluke. The rest of the day was disappointing, so the surfers, like a pack of wild dogs, returned to the beach, chattering and leaping all over the place. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hisoka was popular, Illumi noticed. The younger surfers trailed after him like puppies and the older ones regarded him with tangible respect. It was sort of relieving for Illumi, to see that his surprisingly high opinion of Hisoka was shared by others. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No shark?” Hisoka asked, approaching the shore as Illumi waded from the ocean. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No,” Illumi sighed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wanna hang out tonight?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Your friends are here,” Illumi said, brows furrowed with confusion. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’ve been together since six am this morning. Besides, you’re a better lay.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s not funny.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What time should I come over?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can you bring dinner?” Illumi asked. Hisoka grinned. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sure, is six okay?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s okay.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Bye, bye!” </span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Are you moving in?” Illumi asked dryly, eyeing the bag on Hisoka’s shoulder. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I got dumplings,” Hisoka announced, ignoring Illumi’s question. He set his bag on the floor and then placed the takeout on the dining room table. Illumi pulled out the boxes eagerly, opening and closing and re-opening things at his whim. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You didn’t answer my question,” Illumi said after a moment, holding a steamed dumpling between two slender fingers. Hisoka grinned wickedly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s a surprise,” he said. Illumi, very briefly, seemed wary of this, but the warm dumplings and the very good wine Hisoka had brought won him over. </span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>When the food was finished, and they had burned through yet another photography slideshow--though this one had been far more interesting, featuring actual marine animals--the air changed with a familiar charged intensity. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sex?” Illumi asked, raising an eyebrow. Hisoka stretched his arms overhead. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, please.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is whatever’s in that bag going to be involved?” Illumi asked, eyeing it like it’s contents might jump out and attack him at any moment. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Very clever, Illumi,” Hisoka said, beaming now. He grabbed the bag and set it between them on the couch, leaning forward like a girl about to tell a story at a slumber party. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Have you ever been tied up during sex?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not myself, no.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Would you like to be?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tied up?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sure.” Hisoka blinked at that. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Really?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You thought I’d say no?” Illumi asked, blinking right back. They stared at each other for a few seconds, nearly nose to nose. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I didn’t know what you’d say.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, I’m saying yes.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That was easy,” Hisoka said brightly, taking the back in one hand and Illumi’s wrist in the other and tugging him towards the bedroom, like a child running down the stairs at Christmas. </span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Illumi’s sexual appeal was a fickle thing. It came and it went with almost no regard for anyone else. Hisoka had never seen someone put on a wetsuit more tantalizingly, but tied up to a headboard with a silk blindfold hanging around his throat, he was exuding all the lust of a white picket fence. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is it too tight?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No,” Illumi said. His shirt was off, which was nice, but he had left his pajama pants on. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What do you know about safewords?” Hisoka asked. Illumi raised an eyebrow. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They’re for when you want to pussy-out.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What? No,” Hisoka said quickly, slightly alarmed.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, it’s just a word to say when you want to stop. We’ll go with the traffic light system, because it’s easy. Red means stop, yellow means slow down, green means go. Got that?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know what a traffic light is,” Illumi said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Please use them, Illumi.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Satisfied for now, Hisoka leaned forward and kissed Illumi on the mouth. Illumi was a fantastic kisser. He wasn’t too wet or too dry, and he wasn’t too pliant or too toothy. It bespoke of an experience that had relieved Hisoka the first time they had had sex. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He didn’t like babysitting when he slept with someone. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Slowly, Hisoka slipped his hand under the waistband of Illumi’s pajamas, tugging at the elastic until it was pulled past the swell of his ass, resting at his upper thighs. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi was hard, and already leaking precum. Hisoka licked the tip of his thumb and then rubbed in circles over the head, watching Illumi’s face for a reaction. All he got was a twitch of the mouth. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m going to put the blindfold on,” Hisoka said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay,” Illumi agreed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The blindfold was tied tightly around Illumi’s eyes, and almost immediately, it garnered a reaction. His skin broke out in goosebumps, nipples hardening, mouth falling open to pant. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi had never actually been blindfolded during sex. He’d had sex in the dark before--which didn’t count, Hisoka would insist--and with someone else who was blindfolded, but never himself. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was strange, like his whole body had been lit up, plugged into a socket without the grounding. Every touch was ten times as jarring. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He felt Hisoka’s breath on his cock, and without thinking, he jerked his hips upward. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hisoka laughed and pressed his hips back down with both hands. His breath puffed out again. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Green,” Illumi said impatiently. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well done,” Hisoka said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Green, green,” he said again. Hisoka finally swallowed him down, tongue swirling in random circles, pressing teasingly against his frenulum. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Green,” he gasped out. He felt Hisoka laugh, again. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Saying ‘green’ over and over won’t make me go faster, Illumi.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can you, anyway?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Damn.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi gave up after that, trying to stop the trembling that kept overtaking his body. He was not used to this kind of sex, the kind where he wasn’t being given what he wanted. He also wasn’t used to not having his hands. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Speaking of, Hisoka’s were traveling upward, skating over his stomach and rib cage to rest at his chest. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He felt Hisoka hollow his cheeks, and at the same time, ran a thumb over his nipple. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Ah,</span>
  </em>
  <span>” Illumi gasped, back arching against his bedsheets. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hisoka gave the kind of head that knocked you out of commission for the rest of the night. Illumi had yet to get the science down right. There was a certain lack of dignity involved, which was hard for him to simulate. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Though, frankly, right now, he wasn’t feeling very dignified, whimpering and trembling five minutes into a blowjob, hands flexing uselessly against unfairly solid cuffs. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Stop pulling,” Hisoka chastised suddenly, sounding more breathless than before. Illumi wanted to </span>
  <em>
    <span>see </span>
  </em>
  <span>him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He said as much. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sorry,” Hisoka said, sounding not the least bit so. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’s your color?” He asked a moment later. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fucking green,” Illumi hissed. He got another laugh from Hisoka, this one louder than the others. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I blame all the people you’ve had sex with before for encouraging your bad sex ettiquette.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What bad etiquette?” Illumi demanded, yelping a moment after as a hand, </span>
  <em>
    <span>dry</span>
  </em>
  <span>, closed around his cock and dragged down. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Hurts</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” he choked out, scrambling at the bed to pull away. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Color?” Hisoka asked calmly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Dunno</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You need to give me one when I ask.” Illumi didn’t think sex was supposed to be this frustrating. He was unbelievably hard, so hard that he was starting to ache, and he was sweating everywhere, and he couldn’t see anything or move his hands, and Hisoka had a death grip on his cock, and Illumi could tell by his tone of voice that he was still smiling. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I hate you,” he got out. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know that color,” Hisoka said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Green, for fuck’s sake.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You sure?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes,” Illumi half-sobbed. Hisoka patted Illumi’s cheek in a gesture he figured was supposed to be soothing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi tried, and failed, to bite at his thumb. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I wanna come,” Illumi snarled. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re gonna,” Hisoka assured him. He wasn’t even touching Illumi’s cock anymore. His hands were everywhere else: his thighs and his chest and his throat and the side of his ribcage, where he was ticklish, which Hisoka knew. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hisoka,” Illumi said desperately. “It hurts, </span>
  <em>
    <span>please</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” He tossed his head and a mass of pitch black hair fell across his throat and chest.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Illumi, be quiet.” Hisoka’s voice was mild, but his fingers dug into Illumi’s skin as he said it, a quiet warning. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Use your colors if you need to,” he added a moment later. Illumi hiccuped and tried to move his hips away. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sometime soon after, Hisoka started using his mouth again, licking and slurping and swallowing to the base with a cute choking sound. Illumi’s hands tugged at the cuffs, and Hisoka must have heard the rattle because he pinched Illumi’s inner thigh so hard that he cried out. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was an endless cycle for Illumi: a brief minute of Hisoka’s mouth, then a torturous few minutes of his hands, everywhere, neglecting his probably very red cock. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi felt a familiar build up low in the pit of his stomach and he chased it, thighs clenching. And then Hisoka pulled off Illumi’s cock with a satisfying pop and replaced his mouth with his hand, now sufficiently slick, sliding up and down at a horribly slow pace.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Please let me come</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” Illumi begged. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>I’ll let you do anything to me</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” Hisoka was really very tempted, but--</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Almost done.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Please</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Almost--” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Red!” </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Hisoka froze. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shit, shit, </span>
  <em>
    <span>shit, </span>
  </em>
  <span>okay, one second, Illumi, one second.” He fumbled with the cuffs first, hand shaking. As they came away, he saw rings of red around his wrists, evidence that he had been pulling against them far too hard. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The blindfold was next, tugged off quickly to reveal glistening black eyes. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Jesus Christ, Illumi, I’m sorry, are you alright?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why are you untying me?” Illumi croaked. Hisoka’s brows came together in momentary confusion. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You--you said red, Illumi. Oh God, do you not remember?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I remember.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That means stop,” Hisoka said, sounding lost now. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, I wanted you to stop doing that because I wanted to come.” Hisoka felt like he’d just been struck upside the head. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m sorry, what?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I wanted to come. I still do.” Illumi’s face was blank. His cheeks were flushed and his lips were bitten, but his features were relaxed, like it was any old Tuesday. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Illumi,” Hisoka groaned, falling back onto the bed. “You gave me a heart attack.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I want to come.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Safewords are serious!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I am serious!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re so stupid, Illumi!” Hisoka spat.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Red means--the whole point of this kind of sex, Illumi, is that you come when I want you to. You’re supposed to say Red when it needs to stop immediately, not when you’re--like--annoyed. This kind of thing isn’t supposed to be pleasant a hundred percent of the time. If you want to slow down, then you use yellow.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I didn’t want to slow down. I wanted you to move your hand faster, actually.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m going to kill you,” Hisoka muttered, dragging his hands down his face. “I will actually kill you.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Make me come first.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re so </span>
  <em>
    <span>demanding</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can I fuck you?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No,” Hisoka said sourly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why?” Illumi demanded, rolling onto his stomach and staring at Hisoka with an almost amusing intensity.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m not letting you fuck me until after the competition. I don’t want to be sore.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Damn,” Illumi said, flopping back down onto the bed with a sigh. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can fuck you?” Hisoka offered. Illumi sighed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’ll have to prep me, it’ll take too long.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What--Illumi, if you were to fuck me, you’d have to prep me, too. It takes the same amount of time.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, yeah.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re lucky you’re hot, Illumi.” Before Illumi could have the time to look offended by that, Hisoka was muffling him with a kiss, wedging his clothed thigh between Illumi’s legs, pressing until he pulled a jagged moan from his mouth. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi was as impatient with prepping as he was with everything else, grinding back on Hisoka’s fingers until he could comfortably fit three. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey Illumi,” Hisoka said, an idea coming to him. “How long can you hold your breath underwater?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Eight minutes, two seconds is my record,” Illumi said, already flipping over and wedging a pillow under his hips. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hold on,” Hisoka said, eyes lingering over the expanse of Illumi’s back, the narrow of his waist, his ass. “Do you want to do that during sex?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Have me cut off your breathing?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi seemed to consider it, brows furrowing sharply. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We can try,” he said slowly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It would be like this,” Hisoka said, wrapping one arm around Illumi’s chest, pulling him up to his knees, and using the other to cover his nose and mouth.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Almost immediately, Illumi sagged backwards, hips bucking forward almost desperately. Hisoka held it for a few seconds, certainly a period of time Illumi could handle, and then he released him a second later, noting the way his ears had gone red. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes,” Illumi said, sucking in a breath, as if to calm himself. “Let’s do that.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Since you can’t safeword, if you want to stop, snap your fingers three times. I’ll stop, let you breathe, and then you can tell me what to do next, whether that’s stopping, going on but with modifications, or anything else, okay?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi grunted. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hisoka had thought it would be best, in light of what had happened earlier that evening, to </span>
  <em>
    <span>over</span>
  </em>
  <span>-explain, for both of their sakes’. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Come on,” Illumi rasped, glancing back at him with lowered brows. Hisoka sat him back slowly, pressing in until Illumi’s ass was flush with his pelvis. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hisoka reached around Illumi’s shoulder again, covering his mouth and nose with one hand and pressing until he felt Illumi’s chest stutter. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Snap if you need to, Illumi.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi gave him a tiny, rapid nod; he was sitting in Hisoka’s lap, thighs spread on either side of Hisoka’s, impaled on his cock. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was different, holding your breath underwater versus having it cut off during sex. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hisoka could tell because it had only been a minute and Illumi was already shuddering, sweat slicking his back, chest heaving. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He was moaning, too, but it was weak and wheezing, barely loud enough to be heard over the sound of Hisoka’s thrusts. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Mmf,” </span>
  </em>
  <span>Illumi mumbled into Hisoka’s hand, jerking his hips forward, seeking friction blindly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hisoka licked up the side of Illumi’s throat, tasting the soft wash of his lotion. Illumi’s head dropped back against Hisoka’s shoulder and it would have lolled to the side if not for Hisoka’s hand, still pressing against his nose and mouth, maintaining a vacuum. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hisoka kissed at his temple, then his cheekbone, then his brow, chaste kisses that Illumi hardly seemed to notice. All Hisoka could see of his face were the tops of his red cheeks and his eyes, with the latter being wide and glazed, rolling back to reveal more white than usual. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It struck him with a lance of concern. He rubbed up and down Illumi’s stomach soothingly, delighting in the way it contracted with every one of his thrusts. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Maybe it would be wise to give him a breath. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hisoka lifted his hand and Illumi took in a huge, ragged breath, sagging pathetically against Hisoka’s chest.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You remember how to ask me to stop?” Hisoka asked. Illumi’s full weight was on him now and it was substantial. Their slight size difference did not seem to equate to any difference, really, in weight. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi nodded dazedly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good boy.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi was still breathing too hard to protest the praise. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Back we go,” Hisoka continued, pressing his hand back to Illumi’s face. He hadn’t been given enough time, Hisoka knew, to gather his breath and all. As Hisoka’s hand sealed over his mouth and nose, Illumi let out a desperate, half-panicked gasp, chest stuttering. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know,” Hisoka said with false sympathy, grinding forward with a sigh. “Almost over.”  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi groaned. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He couldn’t breathe. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was nothing like being underwater. When he was underwater, his prostate usually wasn’t being rammed from behind, and he usually wasn’t propped up against someone’s body, limbs trembling so bad that he couldn’t even move them. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hisoka kept murmuring praise into his ear, but it felt partly mocking. He thrusted particularly hard and Illumi instinctually hissed out a breath, or tried. What came out, instead, was a desperate sob that bubbled out of his mouth and died against the palm of Hisoka’s hand. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He could feel tears sliding from his eyes, which was embarrassing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Even more embarrassing was Hisoka seeing them and laughing breathlessly and then licking them up, tongue tracing the tracks they had left, running over his wet eyelashes. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>And somehow, it still felt so good. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Mmmf</span>
  </em>
  <span>!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hm?” Hisoka asked against his temple, mouth curling in amusement. Illumi tried his best to glare. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hisoka’s hand suddenly came away from his mouth, pressing against his forehead and holding his head in place, instead. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi inhaled jaggedly, feeling heat all over his face. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Wanna come</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” he heard himself wheeze. It sounded nothing like him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m almost there,” Hisoka said, sounding strained. His thrusts turned erratic. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Hisoka</span>
  </em>
  <span>--” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Relax, darling.” His hand returned to Illumi’s mouth, kissing Illumi’s cheek as he did it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>When Hisoka did finally come, it was with a soft, satisfied laugh. Almost immediately after, he licked his own hand and wrapped it around Illumi’s cock. He only needed to stroke him a few times before Illumi was toppling over the edge as well, chest still heaving, collecting debt from stolen breaths. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>They stayed like this, sweaty and silent and breathing hard, for a few minutes. Illumi didn’t even open his eyes, as limp as wet paper. Hisoka let him fall forward onto his front, stroking the back of his thigh lovingly. Illumi lied there, totally prostrate, back rising and falling at a still-elevated rate. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You back with me?” Hisoka asked amusedly after a bit more of waiting. Illumi grunted. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Which meant, no. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Was that too much?” Hisoka’s brows were furrowed now, peering down at Illumi’s slack body. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi shook his head. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m gonna stay over,” Hisoka decided, pulling Illumi’s hair away from his damp skin and putting it up in a bun that left a lot to be desired. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sorry, it’s bad,” Hisoka said in regard to the hairstyle, cringing slightly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“S’okay,” Illumi muttered against the bedding. As long as his hair was out of the way, he didn’t really care.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you okay?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“M’fine.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I didn’t use a condom,” Hisoka said with a jolt of realization. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Bastard,” Illumi said, but his heart wasn’t in it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Next time we have sex,” Illumi continued drowsily, still a little out of breath, “I’m going to fuck you until you cry.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hisoka was actually a very prone crier, but he didn’t tell Illumi that, afraid to spoil the moment. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m sure you will,” he said instead, patting Illumi’s clammy back. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can I carry you to your enormous bath?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Run it, first.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yessir.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hisoka wasn’t sure how Illumi was able to doze off in the space of three minutes, cum still leaking onto the back of his thighs, but not for the first time tonight, he had surprised him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hisoka scooped him up with a grunt, set him back down, readjusted his grip, and then picked him up once more. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re dense,” Hisoka said. Illumi flexed a bicep half-heartedly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Putting Illumi into the bath was more difficult than Hisoka had anticipated, but once he was in, he required no more adjusting. He slumped against the edge of the tub, steam condensing on his skin in a lovely way. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hisoka stepped in with him gingerly, careful not to slosh the water too much. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Their limbs tangled together innocently in the bath. Illumi ran a hand over Hisoka’s thigh, up and down, like he was soothing a horse. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you nervous about the competition?” Illumi asked, his first full sentence since he had come. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m never nervous,” Hisoka admitted. “Just excited.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I hope you win,” Illumi said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That would be nice,” Hisoka agreed, leaning his head back against the rim of the tub. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I liked that,” Illumi said suddenly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The sex?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, all of it.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m really glad, Illumi. You are a never-ending source of joy and confusion and sexual satisfaction for me.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Those are mostly good things,” Illumi said, smiling. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I hope you find your shark.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I do, too.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>They soaked in the bath for a few minutes more in blissful silence, until Illumi couldn’t keep his eyes open, and Hisoka wasn’t much further behind him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Let’s sleep,” Hisoka murmured, “the bath is going cold.” Illumi glanced at him through a veil of damp black hair. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re staying?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay,” Illumi said, in a whisper, mostly to himself. He stood with a wobble, bracing one hand against his lower back, wincing as he went. The bathroom floor was a black stone, something porous and slightly frictioned against the foot. It showed their footprints like a grass lawn in the morning would. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The sheets needed to be changed. They worked in tandem, stripping the bed of one set of linens and replacing them with another. Outside, the ocean was loud, waves crashing against each other relentlessly. Hisoka was always surprised by how the sound carried. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi slipped out of the bedroom and returned with glasses of water, setting one on each nightstand. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>They crawled into bed in the dark, hands fumbling for space and for each other. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m tired,” Hisoka said unnecessarily. He had his head pillowed on Illumi’s chest, an arm thrown over his waist. Illumi ran his hands through Hisoka’s hair, lingering on the feathery parts at the back of his neck. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Me too,” Illumi agreed after a moment. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Neither one of them fell asleep before the other. It came gradual and in unison, eyes closing and mouths relaxing like some spell had been cast just for the two of them. </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>sorry for the literal eternity it took for me to post this lol. it was sitting in my drafts and i wasn't happy with it but i've decided to send it out into the world anyway because who cares! thanks so much for reading! </p><p>as always, comments are the best things in the world! i read every single one</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The end :')</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Can't believe I came back to this story, but I did!</p><p>One important note: hisoka briefly mentions the word "heat" and I wanted EVERYONE to know that this is a term used in surfing competitions; it's essentially a group or pair of competing surfers. It has nothing to do with the word's alternative meaning which is definitely very popular on this website, just a disclaimer bc it might be confusing lol</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>HISOKA! </span>
  </em>
  <span>Let me through--no, I don’t have a VIP pass, why--</span>
  <em>
    <span>HISOKA!” </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>A pair of wide gold eyes peered out of the athletes’ tent, eventually settling on Illumi, who was being obstructed by a pair of bemused bodyguards. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, hello little diver.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My shark,” Illumi gasped, wrestling out from between the bodyguards. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He’s with you?” One of them asked Hisoka. They were giving Illumi twin looks of confusion. Hisoka beamed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes! This is my diver. Hi there Illumi, my heat starts in an hour--” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My shark,” Illumi said again, wide-eyed. “My friend says she saw her heading south. Her pod of whales has been lingering in the area, so I think my shark is finally coming down. She’ll be here in two day’s time.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mmm, excellent,” Hisoka said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I found her,” Illumi said dazedly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, no,” Hisoka pointed out, “not yet.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What did you say earlier, about being hot?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My </span>
  <em>
    <span>heat </span>
  </em>
  <span>is in an hour, but you don’t have to stay and watch. It’s only the first round and I’m going to win.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay,” Illumi said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay,” Hisoka replied, smiling in a way that Illumi found a little embarrassing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ve got emails,” Illumi said vaguely, gesturing elsewhere. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Aren’t you going to wish me good luck?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You said you’d win?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Aw, but it would be super cute if you wished me good luck anyway.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay,” Illumi said dubiously. “Good luck.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thanks, won’t need it!” And then Hisoka was gone, slipping behind the curtain and, going by the sound of his footsteps on the ground, skipping away. </span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Hisoka did win his heat, if his arrival at Illumi’s house with two bottles of Prosecco was any indication. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Round two!” He shouted, banging on the front door. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Coming,” Illumi said tiredly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hisoka glided into Illumi’s house like it wasn’t only his third time being there. He set the Prosecco on the countertop and then collapsed on the couch with a sigh. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m not surfing tomorrow,” he said, glancing up at Illumi with knitted brows, expectant. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m taking a helicopter to try and get an aerial view of my shark, see how far north she still is.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“All day?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just a few hours, until about dusk.” Dusk was for the sharks. They did well in murky half-gray water, with the sun an orange blip on the horizon. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Let’s do breakfast then, my treat.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright,” Illumi said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And I guess if we’re doing breakfast,” Hisoka went on, stretching languidly. He was sunburned along the cheeks, hair damp from what Illumi could guess was a shower. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If we’re doing breakfast?” Illumi prompted as Hisoka slowly took over the entirety of his couch. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then I should probably stay over tonight, for convenience.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“For convenience,” Illumi echoed. Hisoka nodded, very matter-of-factly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>They scorched through the evening together, until they were lying in Illumi’s bed, smelling of the same shampoo, eyes awash with well-earned exhaustion.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Has anyone ever told you that you might have an obsessive personality?” Hisoka asked, stroking his fingers through the ends of Illumi’s hair. He had red finger-marks around his neck that he had complained about to Illumi for a few minutes: </span>
  <em>
    <span>I’m surfing in an internationally televised competition in two days! And everyone will know I like to get choked during sex!</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi had shrugged and grazed his fingers over the marks, watching the way Hisoka shuddered minutely. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hm?” Illumi asked, pulled from his reverie.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I said, has anyone ever told you that you might have an obsessive personality?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes,” Illumi said, tapping his chin in thought.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’d agree with them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi laughed. </span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Hisoka woke up early, bringing back a loaf of oatmeal bread and guava juice in a glass bottle and eggs scrambled with tomato and feta and spinach. He and Illumi ate blearily, like children woken up too early for school, and then fell back asleep, full-stomached and warm under the sun. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hisoka woke up for a second time at noon and darted down the cliffside, a surfboard under his armpit--he must have stored his board at Illumi’s overnight, without Illumi knowing. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Got to get a wave in!</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi drove to a tiny little airstrip and sidled into a tiny little chopper and cruised over the coast until his pilot spotted a dark gray speck swimming calmly along the current. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi pressed his face to the glass and fought back a giddy laugh. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tomorrow I reckon she’ll be at your beach. Probably’ll linger a hundred feet off-shore, give or take.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah,” Illumi breathed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You got gear set up?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m a free driver,” Illumi said distractedly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A </span>
  <em>
    <span>free diver,” </span>
  </em>
  <span>the pilot mused, taking the chopper a little lower and over the empty, rock-filled beach. The airstrip was a little further south, closer to where Illumi lived. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi's neck craned as he tried to keep the shark in his periphery.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s me.” </span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Hisoka spent the night again, but he fell asleep early because it was the finals tomorrow: a lump in Illumi’s bed that smelled like coconut and sighed in its sleep. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>And when Illumi woke the next morning, the bed was empty and there was a sticky note on Illumi’s kitchen island with a phallic drawing and a love heart and a request for Illumi to “manifest” Hisoka some good luck--whatever that meant. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi shimmied his wetsuit on and made his way to the sea. </span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>She was about fifteen feet down, cruising very slowly through the water. She looked broader than the last time Illumi had seen her, broader and a little more scratched up, like someone had taken wool steel to her back. Illumi dove down at a sharp angle, careful to go slow enough that his ears didn’t wail at the pressure. She no-doubt felt his presence as he glided beside her, but she didn’t react, her beady cartoon-eyes almost sightless. Her mouth was open, and there was a missing tooth in the second row. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She was beautiful. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi might have broken a personal record for the length of a free dive for all he knew. It was almost like he’d gone and grown gills without even meaning too, kicking leisurely to keep pace with his shark’s slow, methodical cadence. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She swam the way Illumi imagined a space station spun through space: idle and massive, silent as a movie. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>A school of silver-scaled jacksmelt half-engulfed them, darting around Illumi and the shark with uncanny precision. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She swam on, unbothered. It was, after all, prey too small for her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>When Illumi finally had to swim up for air, vision darkening at the edges, his grip on his camera going loose, the shark did a funny lash of her tail, like a glitch in a video game. Illumi felt the disturbance of water hit him in the ribs from a tail that was as long as he was. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Searing with regret, he sidled out from under her shadow, floated up to the surface, and thought of the massive, middle-aged fish swimming patiently beneath him, in search of warmer waters to snatch seals out of the air and become heavy with child. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>When he reached the surface, the smell of salt, warmed by the sun, hit him in the face. A swell of water lifted him a few inches, bobbing like a buoy. That swell would slink through the ocean until it hit the beach, manifesting itself in a wave with a barrel and a snarling white cap. Maybe, Hisoka would ride it, carving scars of white in its open, crumbling face, before crouching like a cat to shoot through the hollow barrel at the end. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Maybe.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi took in large, indulgent breaths of air and hurriedly sank back down, chest still tight with a need for oxygen, but the water below him was bath-tile blue and endless, not a shape or shadow to speak of. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Even the anxious, shifting school of jacksmelt had disappeared, wringing their hands throughout the pacific like a line at a DMV. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He came back up again and groaned aloud, a sound of satisfaction and disbelief, squinting against the beating sun. He had a long swim back to shore. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He could just make out the tents that marked the swim competition: checkered red and white tops, people milling about excitedly. Hisoka was presumably surfing right now. Maybe, if he swam fast enough, he’d catch the end of it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>When Illumi returned from the ocean, his fingers numb and pruned, Hisoka was on the beach. He had a Hawaiian lei around his neck, the flowers bursting white and yellow and pink, and he was surrounded by people: news reporters, fellow surfers, girls in tiny triangle bikinis with backs so tan they were nearly leathered. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hisoka was smiling, the back rows of his molars flashing as a reporter with a blonde ponytail asked him how he felt about his win. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi watched with an odd sense of melancholy. It felt as if he was still in the ocean, half in the shadow of the belly of a massive old shark. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>And what will you do when you find this shark? </span>
  </em>
  <span>Hisoka had asked. A lukewarm lick of water hit the back of his heels as the tide crept further up-shore. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He didn’t know. </span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>It was easy to slip off the beach and head towards his house without being spotted. He was innocuous in his rolled-down wetsuit, especially when the beach was swarming with people. Hisoka might have been looking for him, might have, but Illumi sort of doubted it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He wasn’t as naive as people thought him to be. He was as much a distraction for Hisoka as Hisoka had been a distraction for him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The steps up to his house felt longer than usual, each one a miniature summit. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Inside his house, he could see the two empty Prosecco bottles Hisoka had left, and could see that his television was still on from last night. There was sand all over the hardwood floors: Hisoka. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was as if Illumi had been knocked out and woke up five years later with a different life, in which Hisoka came to his house everyday, tracking sand like a child and leaving bathing suits over the back of his couch. Except it wasn’t different.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He went to his room, knocking the door open with his shoulder, and rummaged through his desk. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He had lots of glossy photos of his shark, glossy photos of reefs and waves and this very beach. There were four photos of Hisoka, as well, photos he had accidentally gotten printed along with a batch of barrel shots. They were nice photos: a wet, shirtless Hisoka sitting on his board, shoulders pink from the sun, hair pushed out of his eyes. He was smiling in one, fake pouting in another, throwing up double peace signs in a third. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi kept searching until he found it, the sticky note Hisoka had once picked up and asked about. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>After he had left, Illumi had shoved it into his desk, angry and embarrassed all at the same time. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>What is this? </span>
  </em>
  <span>Hisoka had asked, lip curling up cruelly.</span>
  <em>
    <span> A hot date’s number?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>My therapist. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi hadn’t saved the number, because if he saved the number, that meant he needed it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>His therapist liked to assert lots of things, things about his relationship with his mother and his siblings, his relationship with his father and masculinity, his relationship with the shark. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Is the shark a surrogate? </span>
  </em>
  <span>She had asked him once. Illumi remembered rearing his head, feeling skepticism creep in. Therapists were such fucking jokes. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>A surrogate for what? </span>
  </em>
  <span>He asked coolly. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>You tell me. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>From the beach, Illumi could see that most of the people had cleared away. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hisoka was still there, however, standing with his hands on his hips, scanning the horizon, looking for him in the water. Illumi could see even from here that there was a stiffness to his shoulders. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>At one point, realization must have hit him, because his shoulders collapsed and he turned, gaze wrenching from the ocean to the cliffside. Illumi knew, rationally, that Hisoka couldn’t see him, but he still felt the bite of two gold eyes staring him down. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was offensive how quickly Hisoka understood things. He must have seen the half-open gate at the bottom of Illumi’s stairs, must have seen the pendant lights glowing in the kitchen through the too-big windows. And he must have known Illumi well enough by now, that he wouldn’t still be on the beach. He wasn’t the kind to linger on the sand after hours in the water, not in his nature. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi smoothed out the crumpled sticky note and stuck it to the surface of his desk. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi would see Hisoka again, in a year’s time, when the competition rolled around again, when the water was warm again, when his shark would be making the same journey south, nothing but instinct tugging her along the Baja current. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>And that’s how it would be, a year of searching, of treading water, all for a few moments of sweet-smelling skin and a dark gray dorsal fin and sand all over his floors. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Seriously, a surrogate for what?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi typed the number from the sticky note into his phone and saved it as a contact, and was about to track back to the outdoor shower, to rinse the sand off his skin, change into something easy to wash, and collapse on his couch until it was dark and his hair asked for a proper washing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But he heard a low, ringing whistle. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>His stomach clenched around nothing and he stood unsteadily, wetsuit unsticking itself from his chair. Which was vintage rattan and definitely shouldn’t get wet. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He heard the whistle again and emerged skeptically from his living room sliding doors, barefoot on the grass. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>At the very edge of the cliff, he peered down and felt his mouth twitch with the precursor to elation. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey!” Hisoka shouted. He had his board under his arm, a tight little Firewire that had his sponsors plastered on the back of it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hi,” Illumi called down. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Found your shark?” Hisoka asked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yup. Won your competition?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yup.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Look at us,” Illumi said, dry, fond. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Listen, I don’t mean to be rude,” Hisoka said, grinning without a hint of bashfulness, “but do you mind throwing me down a pair of flip flops?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Illumi felt his own lip curl and his chest twist with disappointment. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Apparently,” Hisoka went on, running a hand through salt-curled hair, “these stairs can give you some nasty blisters and these are first-place feet.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My stairs,” Illumi echoed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, I want to walk on them.” A beat. “Well, up them.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Up my stairs?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hisoka was happy to go along. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Up your stairs and across your lawn and maybe dip under your outdoor shower to be considerate because I have sand everywhere, and then after that--” Illumi chucked down an old pair of Rainbows, startling him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hisoka glanced up with wide eyes. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Come,” Illumi said, slowly shimmying out of his wetsuit as he walked towards his shower, “I’ll get the water warm for you.” </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Ahhhh, this fic holds a very special place in my heart. Probably one of the most significant things to me personally that I will share on this website, besides my other fic springtime rising. Thank you so much to everyone who has read it and stuck by me!</p><p>As always, comments are the thing that KEEPS me going, no matter how long its been since this fic was published, just know I will always read the comments and GLOW. </p><p>Until the next update, peace!</p><p>twitter: https://twitter.com/illumitheillest</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>As always, please let me know what you thought!! Comments are my lifeblood :)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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